Essential Oil 101 (9)：Grades of Essential Oils
Just as chemists can synthetically "copycat" the constituents of a pure essential oil, many essential oil companies today label their oils "therapeutic", even though they buy from anonymous brokers and have no experience in meeting any standards. Therefore, we have to first understand what defines a therapeutic essential oil, and the standards required, in order to ensure that the oil we use meet or exceeded our medicinal needs as presented.
In choosing or buying our essential oils, we should first learn to distinguish between the terms like "essential oil" or "organic" or "high quality" and the manufacturing, processing and distillation methods. As of today, these "essential oils" can be categorised into FIVE grades in terms of their production hence affecting their quality:
1. Synthetic Biology
Adulterations were recreated from synthetic DNA to high value molecules like esters, terpenoids, and aldehydes, and and then fermented by bioengineered yeasts, fungi, and enzymes. These flavors and fragrances can be named "natural" according to FDA and European regulations, because they come from yeast. This biology is normally used to enhace cheaper oils.
2. Synthetic or nature-identical oils
Synthetic or nature-identical oils are common and everywhere in the retail market. They are created cheaply in a laboratory and then sold in places like health food and drug stores or novelty and tourist shops for a very low price. They have no therapeutic efficacy and may even be harmful. For instance, fragrance-grade lavender may have a harmful effect instead of a healing effect on newly burned skin.
3. Extended or altered oils
Extended or altered oils may have an essential oil base but are "enhanced" with certain lab-created constituents to increase its volume or fragrance. Due to the existence of chemical impurities or possible antagonistic characteristic due to imbalances between consisutents, these oils may be either ineffective or could even cause negative effect.
4. Natural oils and certified oils
"Natural" and "organic" essential oils focus on growing in a natural, chemical-free environment but are not concerned with exactness of the time of harvest and the distillation to maximise the therapeutic potency of an essential oil. Such oils may be labeled "100% Pure Certified" or "Natural" but may only have sub-therapeutic values.
5. Therapeutic-grade essential oils
Therapeutic-grade essential oils are natural, therapeutic, extracted from steam distillation, and which can give us all medicinal compound. The life-giving energy of these essential oils is carefully distilled from nature and cannot be duplicated in a sterile laboratory. Synthetic constituents of lower grade oils may have similar chemical structure but they do not have the living plant energy that holds the medicinal value of the oil that is pure and released from the plant itself.
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Source：
Life Science Products and Publishing Essential Oils Desk References (8th Edition) LifeScience Products and Publishing
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